Book excerpt: Leadership has never been more important to the cultural industries. The arts, together with museums and heritage sites, play a vital part in keeping economies going, and, more importantly, in making life worth living. People in the sector face a constant challenge to find support for their organizations and to promote the value of culture. Leadership and management skills are needed to meet the mission of creative arts and cultural organizations, and to generate the income that underpins success. The problem is, where can you learn these essential skills? The Cultural Leadership Handbook written by Robert Hewison and John Holden, both prime movers in pioneering cultural leadership programmes, defines the specific challenges in the cultural sector and enables arts leaders to move from 'just' administration to becoming cultural entrepreneurs, turning good ideas into good business. This book is intended for anyone with a professional or academic interest anywhere in the cultural sector, anywhere in the world. It will give you the edge, enabling to you to show creative leadership at any level in a cultural organization, regardless of whether your particular interest is the performing arts, museums and art galleries, heritage, publishing, films, broadcasting or new media.